Khadirs-Three Generations of Nutters

As police entered the home of the Amir Khadir family, in search of evidence against eldest daughter Yalda for her part in illegal radical activities, they couldn't help but notice a poster for a Quebec band, lying on the kitchen table, a disturbing and macabre tribute to the ego of Amir Khadir.

Fashioned after Eugène Delacroix's famous painting, Liberty Leading the People, this version has a Bananarchist waving a black anarchist flag, an armed Khadir himself in a top hat standing over a seemingly dead, half-naked and defeated Jean Charest. To Khadir's right is a masked demonstrator and to his left a riot cop bowing down.
When asked about the artwork, Khadir brushed it off, calling it a 'parody.' Link
When the story caught fire in the Press, Khadir threatened to sue the Journal de Montreal for printing the story of the poster, because it was...err......embarrassing.

There's quite an ego hidden under the usually calm and demure Amir Khadir, who in the last week or so, let slip his alter ego, comparing himself to Gandhi and Martin Luther King, after his own arrest for blocking a street, much to howls of laughter and derision in the Press.

Yalda arrested at home, in front of a sign calling for civil disobedience.

When Yalda was first arrested, Khadir told a public audience, that if she did anything wrong she would have to pay the price.
Now that he's had a chance to glimpse at the evidence, the realization that she could go to jail for her acts, he's changed his tune considerably.

For years Khadir has lived a double life, hiding his communist and anarchist affiliations, but no more.

In order to support his daughter, he's now publicly saying that civil disobedience is the route to take in the face of a recalcitrant government;.

"We call on all partners in society.... to disobey this law in a peaceful manner. "- Amir Khadir

At least it's refreshing to finally hear some honesty.

In a courthouse interview, he actaully defended his daughter's violent plan to attack the home of  the ex-cabinet minister.

It isn't any wonder that Yalda, at just 20 years old is a violent anarchist, she comes by her radicalism honestly, learning from her parents, who in turn learned from their parents.
From an early age Yalda was dragged to demonstration after demonstration, a hatred for capitalism, Canada, the United States and of course, the old standby, Israel, pumped into her inquiring and absorbent mind.
She is no doubt, the product of her parents radicalism and in some way reminds me of the product of parents who name their children after Hitler, as a salute to their white supremacism. You just know you're going to end up with one screwed up kid.

Jafar & Amir demonstrating. Like father, like son.

Just like his daughter, Amir was radicalized by his father, Jafar, a longtime communist bigwig who has been banned from entering the United States. He's someone always ready, willing and able to support radical causes, especially when it comes to demonizing Israel, the Khadir clan's favorite foil. You can catch him every now and then in front of the Le Marcheur shoe shop on St. Denis, protesting against the small merchant for selling Israeli shoes.

Grandma Khadir is quite the pistol too, comparing Yalda to poor Palestinian children, whose only crime is throwing stones at police.
In fact she compared the Quebec government to that of the regime of the Shah of Iran, from where she fled to the safety of Canada and remarked to a reporter that she considered Yalda a political prisoner, which made her feel "humiliated to be a Quebecer"

Grandma Farideh showed up to court arm in arm with  grandpa Jafar, so proud of Yalda, that they brought a bouquet of flowers, as if they were attending a recital or graduation.

  As I said in the title, nutters.....

Yalda's mom Nima, is another piece of work, a TRUTHER and self-important radical, she actually demanded that police remove their shoes before they conducted a raid in her home.
I bet you're asking yourself if the police complied...........nope they did not.

And then let's not forget Amir's brother who was arrested in France as a member of a terrorist organization (People's Mujahedin of Iran)  and who was released after a political campaign by Amir to get him out..

According to the Khadirs themselves, both of the two oldest daughters are militants. Daria hasn't been arrested yet, but if all goes according to plan, Grandma will be bringing her flowers very soon.

Quite the family.....
And you thought the Kardashians were one screwed up family.....

At any rate, since Amir has 'come out' in support of anarchism, questions are being raised as to whether he was involved or knew of his daughter activities.

Police are claiming that when they raided the Casa Khadir, alongside that poster found on the kitchen table was a plan to attack the residence of the Quebec cabinet minister.

So the question remains, what did Khadir know about the plan and when did he find out about it.
Inquiring minds want to know....

Further Reading: Amir Khadir Has a Lot to Hide

OQLF Language Report an Exercise in Smoke and Mirrors

Smoke and Mirrors: Something/Someone that distorts or blurs facts, figures, etc., like a magic or conjuring work; artful deception; tricky inventiveness.

I can't think of a better metaphor than the above 'Smoke and Mirrors' to describe the reports issued last week by the OQLF describing the language situation in relation to the retail trade in Montreal.

It took quite a while for me to get through the pages because like a student's essay, aiming to fulfill a minimum word count, the reports were long on superfluous, duplicate and useless information.

Really, did we need a diagram indicating what foot path an inspector took while visiting a department store and was it germane to include the fact the inspector started from the top floor and worked his/her way down?

OQLF- This is how we walk around a room

But despite the padding, the reports were more interesting, not for what they included, but rather what they did not, but more on that a little later.

First point of course, is the credibility of any report emanating from the OQLF itself, an organization that ceases to have meaning, should itself determine that the French language not be in danger, thus rendering its existence redundant. Under that circumstance, it's hard to imagine the OQLF ever declaring French out of trouble, even if it were so.

Instead of handing off the study to an impartial third party, the OQLF itself produced the report in-house, setting the terms, training and deploying inspectors and putting together the final report.
Like the Church preparing a report on the existence of God, even with the best intentions, it is hard to take the conclusions other than with a grain of salt.

I'm not going to bore you with an exhaustive critique, which in the end leaves the readers with information overload. I will dwell on just two points, those points, which in my opinion, render the reports discredited. My first concern is that the OQLF starts off with a faulty basic premise and my second concern is its failure to honestly present the data.

The faulty assumption is of course, the idea that a store without a French descriptor in its 'English name' is in violation of Bill 101, we've gone through this before, it just isn't true.

In the thirty-five years since the introduction of Bill 101, the OQLF has bound over in the neighborhood of 2,000 files for prosecution in relation to recalcitrant violators of the language law.
NOT ONE of these prosecutions has ever been undertaken in relation to a company using an English trademark without a French modifier appended to its trade name.
In thirty-five years, no company, to my knowledge, has ever received a 'mise en demure' (demand letter) from the OQLF demanding that it add a descriptor to its trademark.
Why?
If I am wrong about the legality of descriptors (which I am not,) I would ask defenders of the OQLF to explain why the organization has failed to take any legal action against any company, when it has pursued legal action for other violations.

Is it because the OQLF is afraid to take on a multinational with deep pockets, companies which have already received legal opinions that in relation to descriptors, the OQLF hasn't a leg to stand on?

You know, I cannot remember the OQLF taking any multinational company to court over any aspect of Bill 101. If they did, it is likely that there were very few cases.
No, as far as I'm concerned,  the OQLF prefers to pursue small-fries, those they can bully with impunity.

Not true?  So why do new cars continue to be delivered with pictograms AND English-only labeling on the dashboard?
Why is it that in Quebec, new cars can be delivered with English-only dashboards, while TOY CARS cannot be delivered with play dashboards in English? Such is the nonsensical world of the OQLF.

Perhaps it is because big car companies have told the OQLF to piss off, that if the Quebec government demands special labeling for Quebec bound new cars, consumers would have to pay hundreds of dollars extra to pay for it, with the specter of Quebecers buying cheaper cars in Ontario, a frightening scenario that would lead to, you guessed it, the need for more restrictive laws, banning the practice.

At any rate, I will again remind readers that in 2001 the OQLF received a legal opinion that any attempt to force modifications on copyrighted trademarks would violate international copyright law.
The OQLF continues to perpetrate this myth, refusing to comment on the controversy, preferring to ignore realty like a toddler sticking her fingers in her ears, shouting "I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!'

So once this false premise is offered as one of the cornerstones of these language reports, the conclusions become tainted, or as they say in court, "The fruit of the poisonous tree"

In the Highlights report, we are told that 72% of downtown businesses are, according to the OQLF, in complete compliance with the law, including the store name and the interior and exterior signage.

Then we are told that 83% of stores have a store name that conforms to the  law, meaning of course, that 17% of downtown store have 'illegal' store names.

I don't have any problem with that data set, it seems reasonable, because many American chain stores with English names are well-represented downtown.

But if one was to eliminate the question of French descriptors and illegal English names, one could conclude that downtown stores are 90% in compliance with the law, a fair difference with the 72% that the OQLF asserts.

And so we come to the second part of my concern, the question that the OQLF conveniently fails to answer.
Of the 10% who are in non-compliance, what percentage of signs are illegal?

The OQLF inundates us with all kinds of useless information, but NEVER TELLS US what is their interpretation of the threshold of being compliant nor non-compliant.

Does one illegal sign in a store with 300 signs make a store non-compliant?
It's crucial information that the OQLF omits, probably on purpose, because the answer sadly, is yes.

According to the OQLF, one illegal sign in a 10, 50, 100 or 500, makes the store non-compliant.

It's like writing a test with 100 questions and flunking because you got 99 questions right and one wrong.
It hardly seems fair that a store like Best Buy is considered non-compliant because of its name, when the 500 or so signs in the premises, all respect the criteria set out by French language signage regulations.

Of all the information provided in all the reports, never once does the OQLF tell us how many signs it counted and how many signs were were non-compliant.
While the OQLF is determined to tell us what path inspectors walked in the stores they visited, they won't tell us the number of 'legal' and 'illegal' signs they observed. Clearly they have something to hide.

Failure to disclose the most important data set  can only be construed as an attempt to misconstrue and mislead, like a clever con man dealing out a hand of 'Three Card Monte."
The misdirection is in and of itself a disgraceful testament to the OQLF's duplicity and dishonesty.

Readers this is no accident, presenting the information honestly would likely show less than 1% of signs are illegal, not a number that the OQLF is keen to publicize.
Instead, the OQLF tells us how many stores have at least one illegal sign, a dishonest and manipulative way to goose the numbers.

By the way readers, I did my own downtown sign inspection and will report on Wednesday.
The results are absolutely startling, so don't miss it.

And by the way, here's one nugget that I found in the report that I found extremely interesting and sad.

It seems that the OQLF inspected certain stores in 2010 and then inspected the exact same stores again in 2012, to determine the differences in terms of compliance with the language laws, over the two years.

The OQLF reports that a stunning 17% of these stores were now closed, no longer in business, this in just two short years!

But far as the OQLF is concerned, it doesn't matter a twig, its only concern is whether the stores followed the law in respect to signage......

"Closing Sale" or "Bankruptcy sale"

NO WAY!!!

"Vente de fermeture" or "Vente de Faillite"

That's much, much better!!

French versus English Volume 56

Too bad they didn't handcuff his mouth as well!

After arrests, Khadir family embraces its anarchist roots

Not to be outdone by his nineteen year-old daughter, Yalda, who's been arrested a couple of times for various actions in relation to the student demonstrations, Amir Khadir took part in an illegal demonstration and got himself arrested.
He practically begged police to arrest him...Hear him taunt the police.

Explaining that his act of civil disobedience was justified in the face of an unjust law, he compared himself to Martin Luther King and Gandhi...
Really?.... Khadir in the same company as Gandhi and MLK?
Methinks he is starting to become a self-important, pompous ass and I doubt they'll be erecting a statue to his name any time soon! Story of the arrest.

Unfortunately for Khadir, he was slapped with a $495 plus fine for blocking traffic instead of what he had been hoping for, a charge with disobeying Bill 78, which is clearly more heroic than fighting a traffic ticket.

At any rate, he was roasted in a radio interview by the loathsome Benoit Dutrizac, who saw the danger in this new rational of civil disobedience, fretting that Anglos could use the same justification to disobey Bill 101. 

The interview was precious, as Khadir tried to explain that what is sauce for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander.   

Telling the interviewer that his group was justified in disobeying the law because they were in the right while the Anglos are not justified in disobeying Bill 101 because they are in the wrong, Dutrizac mocked him mercilessly for his magical thinking.

If you understand French, you're going to laugh your ass off, as Dutrizac shows him up for a fool. Listen to Radio EGO

"When injustice becomes the law, resistance is a duty"

By the way, Papa Khadir has a way to go to catch up to his daughter, who is turning out to be quite the anarchist. She was arrested  once again yesterday in a sweep by police looking for the perpetrators of the vandalism of the offices of Liberal cabinet minister Line Beauchamp and those who were responsible for the metro smoke bombs. According to ace crime reporter Claude Poirier, Yalda's fingerprints were found in the premises of the office of the minister. Yikes!
In relation to her arrest, the Khadir residence was the subject of a search warrant and was given a good going through..
The Khadirs have clearly given up all pretenses of being law-abiding citizens as the sign on their front door attests.
As policy, I don't usually publish pictures of private residences of public figures, but the Khadirs have made their stoop a billboard promoting anarchy. I have however blurred out the address and will omit to name the street.
How badly do cops want to send a Khadir off to the Clink? ....very much so. Dunno.....

It's a developing story.   Read the story
Further reading;  Amir-Khadir has lot to hide

Separatists not ready to share.

Our good friend Pierre Curzi once again demonstrated that he's a dreamer and political novice by calling for the three separatists parties to join forces in the next provincial election in order to fight the Liberals of Jean Charest. In an open letter printed in the Devoir, he suggested that;

Marois turning her nose up at a coalition

"The purpose of this call is to join forces to promote the election of a progressive and democratic government.
Why join the forces? 

Because the division of votes, especially among francophones, promotes the re-election of the Liberal Party. An ultra dynamic coalition vote would allow abstainers to participate, who are the only ones who can put the Liberals in opposition."

Let's be honest, he's probably right and his idea holds merit, so it isn't any surprise that Pauline Marois rejected the idea out of hand. She must have failed sharing in kindergarten.
Her cavalier decision to keep the separatist vote split sparked the ire of certain diehards who called her decision 'pitiful' and called for her replacement. Link{Fr}

Job Discrimination 'no big deal'

Last year I told you about an educated  francophone Muslim who applied for many a civil service job, only to see his application consigned to the scrap heap. Wondering if it was his obviously Arabic name which was the problem, he sent in two nearly identical applications, one altered to hide the fact that he was an immigrant.
Lo an behold the 'non-immigrant' application received an offer for an interview, while the true application with the Muslim name was passed over.
To make a long story short, he sued and won a settlement for discrimination.
Did the agency take corrective action or even apologize?
What do you think?
As far as the offending government agency was concerned, the fine was just the 'cost of doing business.'

Well a new report prepared by the government's Human Rights Agency tells us that things haven't changed much.

"It sadly comes as no surprise to learn that people with foreign-sounding names have significantly less chance of getting even a job interview, never mind the job, than those with typically Québécois monikers.

A study released this week by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission found that Quebecers with “Québécois-de-souche” names such as Tremblay or Bouchard are 64 per cent more likely to get invited to a job interview than those with names like Traoré or Ben Amin, even if their qualifications are identical.  Read the rest of the story    Alternate Link

Now one would think that this report would be received with a certain measure of shock and concern but it's hardly the case, the story made hardly a ripple.

Here's the attitude that most Quebecers adhere to;

Census figures augur poorly for Quebec

"Quebec's growth rate pales beside Alberta's (10.8 per cent) and Saskatchewan's (6.7 per cent). At 4.7 per cent, it was only 0.4 per cent higher than the 4.3-per-cent rate it recorded during the period measured by the previous census. Meanwhile, Yukon's rate doubled, as did Manitoba's.

As a result, Quebec's share of the overall Canadian population declined from 23.9 per cent in 2006 to 23.6 per cent in 2011.

During that same period, Quebec sustained a net loss of 50,000 residents to interprovincial migration - though the most recently measured annual net outflow, for 2010, was down to 3,244, much better than during the first two years of the census period, when the net loss was nearly triple that.It is also notable that Montreal does not rank among the 15 fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country, and it is small comfort that Quebec City comes in at No. 14." Read more : ALTERNATE LINK

Francophones watch and listen to English media.

"Earlier this month, Cineplex launched “Les jeudis sans doublage” (no-dubbing Thursdays), in several theaters across Québec. “Your favorite actors! Their real voices!” claims Cineplex’s website.

Several movie theatres have featured films in their original English version in the Montreal area. However, the marketing program “Les jeudis sans doublage” brings them to theatres that, so far, have been catering to mostly francophone audiences: in the Montreal suburbs of Dorion and Delson, in the Québec City area, and in the towns of Victoriaville, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and Sherbrooke. “A good part of our audience has expressed an interest in seeing the latest productions in their original English version” explained Daniel Séguin, vice-president for Eastern Canada and general manager in Québec at Cineplex Entertainment in a press release."

Proving the point that you cannot legislate taste. I can only imagine the outrage and sense of betrayal over at the militant language organizations...
To Mario Beaulieu et als, I can only remind them that ...."The heart wants what the heart wants"

Adding salt to the wound, Francophones also make up the majority of listeners of Montreal English FM radio stations because these stations are not subject to language restrictions.
French stations must play a majority of French music according to CRTC rules, an extreme handicap that they've complained about over the years. The rule's disparity gives their English competitors a BIG advantage.
Such is the perverse result of regulations designed to legislate personal behavior and taste.
Read the rest of the story

How pitiful is this....

I've always maintained that French language militant groups are vastly over-exposed in the press, garnering disproportionate media exposure

For this reason, membership figures are a closely guarded secret, but the Mouvement Laval français let the cat out of the bag.

The Laval version of the MQF, was created last November to save Laval from the scourge of English, but it hasn't exactly attracted a big following.

According to Manon Arsenault, the president of Mouvement Laval français, it's membership is but a handful of people. Link{Fr}

It has set the rather ambitious goal of attracting 250 members and raising $2,500.

This in Quebec's second largest city with a population of over 400,000 people.

Good luck with that.

Holocaust survivor makes stunning gift to Montreal museum.

A Jewish Holocaust survivor donated a $75 million art collection as a “thank you for everything” that Montreal, Quebec and Canada had offered his family.
This gift is in addition  to the $50 million the Hornsteins had already donated . Read the story

This week I took a walking tour of downtown Montreal in preparation for Monday's post and I noticed that the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has both the English and French versions of the name of the museum equally displayed outside the building, something rare these days in Montreal.

Could it be that that the overwhelming majority of patrons and donators are Anglophones?

Weekend Reading

A while back I wrote a somewhat prescient article declaring Montreal the riot capital of North America. Read it HERE
Kristian of Coolopolis has a nice piece about some of the more obscure riots that have taken place in Montreal.
Read: Obscure riots from the city's past.

******************

Funniest interview of an anti-government protestor . See it HERE in French

******************

Here's an interesting retrospective of West Hill high school by a Montreal ex-pat living in Vancouver . Link

Thought of the week

Background:

"Concordia University students who blocked others from attending classes and exams during the now four-month-old “student strike” protests will face sanctions, reports the Montreal Gazette."

The university’s Office of Rights and Responsibilities has charged a number of students under the Code of Rights and Responsibilities and will try them this month. Sanctions may include payment for damaged property, community service, suspension or expulsion, a university spokesperson has said.  Link

  Given that Concordia has taken action against certain students who disrupted classes, it's entirely possible that francophone schools will also take action.

UQAM remedy?----Extra Credit. 

Readers:

Don't miss Monday's post which I am in the process of putting together this weekend.

In response to the OQLF report about English signage in downtown Montreal, I set out for myself to see if their conclusions were accurate.

For hours, I walked the streets of several blocks in the downtown 'English' core, entering each store and recording what I saw, exacting a very detailed study of the signs.

 As you can imagine, my version of the truth is far from that of the OQLF.

In the meantime have a very good weekend.  

Très bon week end à tous !!

Canada Desperate For a Revitalized Liberal Party.

 Long time readers of this blog know that I am not a Federal Liberal Party supporter and never have been.
I like to consider myself a small 'c' Conservative and was happy to see Stephen Harper elected with a majority.

That being said I believe that the country is desperate for the rebirth and relaunch of a Liberal Party to act as a counterweight to the more and more dogmatic and narrow agenda driven Conservatives, who seem to be emboldened by the lack of opposition.
With a vacum created in the political center and left of center, it's no surprise that the country has turned to the NDP as the only credible opposition to the Conservative juggernaut, something that scares me as much as a runaway Stephen Harper.

So what the heck are the Liberals waiting for?

Jean Chretien-Helmet Backwards, but forward thinking?

There's something to be said for a political party taking some time to lick the wounds of an election smack down, but that time has come and gone and if the Liberals don't do something soon, they will be consigned to the scrap heap of history, a footnote in the Canadian Encyclopedia.

Time seems to be running out and there doesn't seem to be anyone in the Liberal party, the least bit concerned.

I firmly believe that between Harper and Mulcair, a great many Canadians, perhaps even a majority, are now looking for a kinder and gentler version of the two dogmatists, someone who won't bash Quebec or Alberta, a leader and a party that will represent Canadians from coast to coast.

In the meantime, the Liberals are content to go through the motions, openly admitting that they are treading water in anticipation of a new leadership convention after a period of rebuilding.

The problem is that there doesn't appear to be much rebuilding going on..

Even worse, is the insipid Bob Rae, the 'temporary' leader that represents the old guard, everything that was rejected by Canadians in the last election.

I honestly don't understand how the Liberal base tolerates such mediocrity at the top, a leader that is bound like Moses to wander through the opposition benches for forty years.

Where are the political strategists, have they also fled the party or are they being constrained as I fear, by the Bob Rae forces who are stalling as long as they can, until the party has nothing left at all, giving him a chance at permanent leadership?

At any rate, if the Liberals are to survive, they need to stop acting like losers and project an image of confidence, instead of the aura that surrounds the party now, that of a bunch of sadsacks going through the motions.

Solution? Your editor is never short of advice...

Get rid of Bob Rae, an albatross that represents not leadership, but losership.

Marc Garneau- The Right Stuff

Elect a new leader quickly, someone with impeccable national credentials, someone who projects integrity, honesty and trustworthiness, even if he isn't a political heavyweight.

To that end, no better candidate appears than Montreal's Marc Garneau, an ex astronaut that proudly wore the Canadian flag on his arm.

"Born in February 1949 in Quebec City, Canada. He received his early education in Quebec City and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Quebec and in London, England. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics from the Royal Military College of Kingston in 1970, and a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, England, in 1973. He attended the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College of Toronto in 1982-1983. Read the rest of his biography, you will be impressed!

Handsome and flawlessly bilingual, his election as a leader would preserve the fine Liberal Party tradition of alternating leadership between anglophones and francophones.

Mr. Garneau is the right choice to rebuild the party, he doesn't have to create or sell a comprehensive national policy, he has to project an image that the Liberals have returned as the party of national unity, a force of inclusion, not exclusion and a party where dogmatic left and right wing policies are not welcome.

It isn't a hard message to sell, I think many Canadians are ripe for the picking, especially in southern Ontario, where the voter's decision to support the Conservatives in the last election is one that many have come to regret.
Here is where Mr. Garneau can easily sell himself and his party as a solid alternative to the politics of the extreme, as practiced by Harper and Mulcair.

Mr. Garneau also has the right stuff to regain a base in Quebec, his integrity and reputation will help Quebecers forget the humiliation of the Sponsorship scandal.
For the majority of Quebecers, a return to the Liberals can happen, it is just a question of some healing time and a new and trustworthy leader.

For the ROC, even in the West, I believe that Garneau is an acceptable leader, considering his history as an astronaut with unimpeachable bone fides as a loyal Canadian.
A good "Frenchie" so to speak....ahem.

It's time for the Liberals to sell themselves for what they always were, a middle of the road party that serves the interests of all Canadians without pitting one region off against another.

As I said from the onset, I'm not a supporter, but as a strategist, I would encourage the Liberals to play on their strengths.
It's time to remind voters that it was the Liberals under Jean Chretien (no intellectual giant) that balanced the budget, unlike the present Conservatives who have blown the wad despite a false reputation as prudent fiscalists.
It was the Liberals that avoided the catastrophe of involvement in the war in Iraq, standing up to the unrelenting pressure of the Americans.
It's true that they got us involved in Afghanistan, but that was a NATO issue, which meant that not sending troops would mean abandoning NATO itself, something no government could have undertaken at the time.

If the Liberals are to be a force once again in Canadian politics, it's time to act now.
Like a bottle of wine, there is such a thing as being over-aged.

A new leader with an impeccable record of integrity and service to this country, coupled with a simple message of inclusion rather than confrontation, is the ticket to success

The road to salvation is sometimes uncomplicated, taking the first step and making the commitment to follow through is the hard part.

The Liberal Party has a choice.....move forward or die.

OQLF Serves Up a Hearty Dish of Statistical Lies and Nonsense

It's natural to be skeptical when presented with studies and reports offered by organizations that have an axe to grind or a position to defend or promote.

One certainly wouldn't be faulted for mistrusting or discounting, from the onset, a report on abortion prepared by either the Pro-life Movement or the Pro-Choice Movement, as each organization would be expected to present those facts, figures and conclusions that best represent and promote their position.

It's also natural that when these reports are presented to the public, they be subject to a rigorous critique, usually performed by peer groups and those with opposing views.

Using the example above, it's natural that  the Pro-life group would use its experts to deconstruct a report presented to the public by the Pro-Choice group, in order to discredit it by means of exposing its shortcomings, whether it be false premises or conclusions, poor or incorrect methodology, or outright intentional deception.

The scientific community has long relied on the principle of 'Peer review' whereby scientific papers presented to the public are scrupulously tested and evaluated for flaws, errors, methodological errors and faulty conclusions or contaminated or faulty testing.
Any scientist presenting a paper to a scientific journal knows full well he will have to defend the work before his peers, who will either confirm his paper to a varying degree between a valid scientific piece of work, or a piece of junk science.

The best example that I can think of is the debunking of the concept of 'Cold fusion', which if true promised a cheap and abundant source of energy.
The two promoters of the concept, were mercilessly critiqued by other scientists who try as they would, were unable to replicate the experimental results.
For those of you with the time read  Cold Fusion: Future of physics or phoney?,  an article which nicely demonstrates the scientific method of 'peer review' in action.

Last week the OQLF came out with a series of studies reporting on the condition of French language in the retail industry in downtown Montreal, be it signage or the use of French in communicating with customers.

As for its credibility, I take the conclusions with a grain of salt,  giving the results as much credence as I would to a report published by Al Qaeda, maintaining definitively that Allah is the only true God.

Make no mistake, the OQLF has but one mission, the restriction and ultimate elimination of English from the Quebec landscape...period.
Any report that the OQLF puts out will promote this end and accepting the conclusions is an exercise in self-deception, something the mainstream media has embraced wholeheartedly.

It remains a maddening mystery as to why, when it comes to accepting any report produced by the OQLF, the media accepts without qualification or skepticism, the conclusions, without critical review.

Not one news organization challenged the OQLF's tenet that companies using a registered trademark as a trade name are required to use a French modifier.
This false premise is the basis of much of the purported non-compliance that makes for the conclusions of the reports. It is a classic case of a false premise leading to a false conclusion.

Readers should be reminded that in the 35 years of Bill 101, not one company has ever been charged by the OQLF with violating Bill 101 because its name didn't carry a French modifier.

To my knowledge, not one company has ever received a letter of complaint or warning, vis-a-vis the requirement for a French modifier and the OQLF has never sent a demand letter calling on any specific companies to add a French modifier.

I have it on good authority that a least two prestigious law firms (one of them, completely French) have provided opinions to several large retailers with 'offending names' that the OQLF has no legal basis to make this type of demand.
The advice given by these law firms is for companies to stay the course and keep quiet and out of the debate. Until a letter is received demanding a change, it is wiser to say and do nothing.

For thirty-five years that letter has not come.

The demand for French modifiers by the OQLF is nothing more than a seedy shakedown, a campaign meant to scare companies into acquiescing or else face a vicious public smear campaign based on a lie.

When the PQ was in power back in 2000, Louise Beaudoin the minister in charge of the OQLF, solicited and received an opinion that a regulation demanding French modifiers be appended to English trademarks would be deemed illegal under international intellectual property law.

Here's one of the very few articles that dares tackle the issue. It was written Denis Lessard in La Presse, back in March.
Interestingly, the OQLF had no comment about the article and not one of the French language militants responded publicly to the damning conclusion.

"Yesterday, the spokesperson of the Office, Martin Bergeron, argued that it was too early to announce the number of complaints made ​​based on the question of name displays as a result of the campaign. "We checked our legal interpretation before moving forward. We understand that there are people who do not have the same interpretation as us," he said.

Ha!! That readers is the closest you're going to get to an admission that the OQLF knows that it is wrong.

Mr. Lessard went on to say this on the subject;

"This new campaign of the OQLF ignored a formal opinion of the Conseil de la langue, that was provided to the government of Lucien Bouchard in 2000, at a time when  Louise Beaudoin was the minister in charge. The PQ government was told then that it was advisable to use incentives to get companies to francize their names, since according to the law, they were not on solid ground." Link{Fr}

(Hier, le porte-parole de l'Office, Martin Bergeron, a soutenu qu'il était trop tôt pour annoncer le nombre de plaintes faites sur l'affichage à la suite de la campagne de l'organisme. «On a vérifié notre interprétation juridique avant d'aller de l'avant. On comprend qu'il y a des gens qui n'ont pas la même interprétation que nous», a-t-il lancé.

La campagne de l'Office fait fi d'un avis formel du Conseil de la langue, fourni au gouvernement de Lucien Bouchard en 2000, à l'époque où Louise Beaudoin était ministre responsable. Le gouvernement péquiste s'était fait dire qu'il devrait se rabattre sur des mesures incitatives pour que les entreprises francisent leur raison sociale, puisque du point de vue de la loi, il n'était pas en terrain solide.")

It's no wonder the OQLF is not pushing the issue through the courts, it knows that it will suffer a stunning defeat and so it has come up with its famous 'soft approach' wherein the OQLF is showing a 'kind' and 'generous face' by using a gentle form of intimidation, that is, the shaming of companies into doing what it wants them to do.

It is a con game, nothing short and nobody is willing to call out the OQLF for the fraud they are perpetrating.

I remain amazed that in the many press conferences given by Madame Marchand, not one reporter, English or French has dared to put this question forward.

"Is the OQLF lying to the public over French descriptors and if not, will it provide the legal basis for its opinion."

Interestingly, this week, Louise Marchand, the head of the OQLF was beaming as she announced that a new arrival to the Quebec retail scene CRATE & BARREL had decided to add the word 'MAISON' before its name.
Whaaatt????
What kind of descriptor is 'Maison,?' .....it's French for 'House of.'

It seems that every single company can add the innocuous "Maison" before its name and be in compliance.
Maison 'Best Buy," Maison Starbucks Coffee." Maison Canadian Tire," "Maison Home Depot" etc., etc.

What happened to real descriptors like 'Articles de Maison' Crate & Barrel?
I think it means that the Offeece is now committed to taking what it can get and any French word will be acceptable.

It's sad and oh so pitiful...

At any rate, the OQLF is now pursuing a new dangerous line of attack cut from the same cloth, wherein it is now considered a fault to greet a customer with the familiar "Bonjour/Hi," something we're all used to when shopping in downtown Montreal or in the West Island.

"Greeting someone in the two languages is certainly not against the Charter," notes the president of the OQLF, Louise Marchand "But it can constitute an irritant which gives the impression to the people that Montreal is anglicizing" Link{Fr}

So according to Madame OQLF, hearing English in public is now an irritant. Hmm.....

I want readers to consider that again.

According to the OQLF, hearing English in public is an irritant!!

It begs the question as o whether will it become public policy at the OQLF to discourage what is perfectly legal, again?

At any rate, I'm not going to critique the contents of the recently released reports, to do so would be a tacit admission that they are somehow valid, which they are not.

Everything about these reports is flawed, from methodology, to its foundation premise.
Had they been prepared by the propaganda office of the Iranian Ministry of Information, they wouldn't look much different.

I will however leave you with one particular pearl taken from the highlights reports. Download PDF

3. Between 2010 and 2012, a French only greeting went from 89% to 74%, while a bilingual greeting increased from 1% to 13%

(3.    Entre 2010 et 2012, l’accueil en français seulement est passé de 89 % à 74 %. Parallèlement, l’accueil bilingue a augmenté de 1 % à 13 %.)

I don't know what idiot prepared that data set, but someone should have thrown it out because it completely goes beyond the realm of credulity.

As all shoppers in downtown Montreal know, it is widely customary to greet customers with a "Bonjour/Hi," a greeting designed to convey the message that the clerk is prepared to offer service in either language.

It's been this way for many years, but the OQLF report claims that in the two short years between 2010 and 2012, the incidence of this greeting multiplied by an astonishing 1300%.

In other words, in 2010, only one in a hundred greetings were "Bonjour/Hi" and in 2012 the practice skyrocketed to thirteen times in a hundred.

An outright impossibility.
A finding that is pure unadulterated bullshit, pardon my French!

Anyone who shopped in downtown Montreal knows that two years ago, bilingual greetings were just as prevalent as today and any change over two years is statistically insignificant.

Bad data, bad conclusions..... but who really cares.

The only people who take these reports seriously are separatists and English language haters.